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I have only vis­ited Van­cou­ver once, and I recall it as one does a night­mar­ish dream. Two years ago to the day, I had set out to attend a con­fer­ence on the declin­ing state of the national dairy coun­cil, hosted in the beau­ti­ful town of Prince­ton, BC. How­ever, due to an unfore­seen cler­i­cal error, my trans­porta­tion from the ferry was way­laid, and I had to spend a night in Van­cou­ver. Skep­ti­cal of the city’s woe­ful stan­dard of accom­mo­da­tion, I decided it would be bet­ter to take to the streets and “club it,” as it is known in the local par­lance. As a result, I was afforded the oppor­tu­nity to see Van­cou­verites in their native habi­tat: pale-skinned delin­quents leer­ing at me from dark alley­ways, mus­ta­chioed hip­sters wear­ing vin­tage sports­wear, ine­bri­ated teenagers vom­it­ing against shopfronts to the glee­ful cheers of drunken hordes. They moved in packs, spit­tle fleck­ing their lips as they jeered at me, screech­ing in an unin­tel­li­gi­ble cacoph­ony from which I could dis­cern lit­tle mean­ing. Nearby, a woman lifted her skirt, expos­ing her but­tocks as a passerby hooted and hollered like a demented orang­utan; two guf­faw­ing twenty?somethings stood snap­ping pic­tures, pre­sum­ably for the pages of a per­verted per­sonal scrapbook.

As dawn extended her rosy fin­gers across the sky, I found myself care­fully step­ping over the syringe strewn streets, strid­ing briskly to the near­est coach sta­tion to escape the stale, ran­cid city air. I boarded the next bus out of town with relief, res­olutely estab­lish­ing to myself that I would never return.

Look out for BurnAfterShooting’s monthly photo series on SADMAG, or fol­low BAS on Insta­gram.

SAD Mag is an independent Vancouver publication featuring stories, art and
design. Founded in 2009, we publish the best of contemporary and emerging
artists with a focus on inclusivity of voices and views, exceptional
design, and film photography.

SAD Mag

SAD Mag is an independent Vancouver publication featuring stories, art, and design. Founded in 2009, we publish the best of contemporary and emerging artists with a focus on inclusivity of voices and views, exceptional design, and film photography.